Fire X Wind
by purplepin
Summary: Naruto Uzumaki is research assistant to Iruka Umino, on a recent research expedition to Bermuda Island a mysterious engine breakdown while Naruto is chartering their plane takes them into the Bermuda triangle. Will they survive and what is inside this area shrouded in myth... Pairings: Sasuke x Naruto; Kakashi x Iruka and others. Warning: Yaoi and lemon (may increase)
1. Chapter 1 - Take-Off

**Fire X Wind**

_**Chapter 1: Take-Off**_

* * *

**Written by**: Purple pin

**Disclaimer**: Naruto belongs to the very talented Masashi Kishimoto sensei

**Translations**: Foreign languages marked with asterisk (*) and translated/explained at the end of the chapter before Author's Note.

**Author's Note**: At the end.

**Pairings: **Sasuke x Naruto; Kakashi x Iruka...More to come.

* * *

A tropical breeze blows across the airfield sending ripples through the lush grass and carrying with it scents from the North Atlantic Ocean. A team of six walks with purpose towards the small four-seater plane parked in the landing bay, two of the group were carrying some equipment in their hands.

"Please check if you have everything, first the meteorological instruments, then the aquatic research instruments". One of the senior scientists wearing an eye-patch addressed.

"Pyranometer, tick; Cielometer, tick; Barometer, tick; water sampler, tick; sediment corer, tick; Acoustic Doppler current profiler...", answered a blonde as he carefully read down his supplies checklist "and ditto for all the others. Yes, Danzo san, we've taken everything we needs for our project, we're ready!" He said excitedly, and gave a thumbs-up to the group while flashing his wide grin.

"Brat, at no point are you to enter the Bermuda Triangle zone, I want you to stay well away from there. You got me?" A woman with honey-brown eyes and two pigtails said in an authoritative tone to the blonde, and he starts to protest "ok, baabaa*, trust old ladies to worry too much. Besides I've chartered plenty of times before".

"NO BUTS" a vein popped on her forehead "you're still a brat – even at twenty, and you're still gonna taste my fist if you misbehave! Iruka, make sure he does not trek-off the chartered course". She ordered the brown haired male, who is Naruto's research supervisor.

"Yes, Tsunade sama*, I'll make sure of that, and Naruto will simply fly on the boundaries of this island in the pre-planned course, landing at various spots on the coastline to collect samples. We will not traverse into the actual Bermuda triangle zone at all." Iruka quickly said to the two head scientists Tsunade and Danzo, and gave them a reassuring nod. He and Naruto then went to place the equipment onto the backseat of the plane, before heading back to the crew to say their goodbyes. Being a man of few words, Danzo simply nodded to the two leaving and headed back to the waiting lounge with his assistant.

"Be safe, Iruka sensei and Naruto kun, I can't wait to see your wonderful findings when you come back", a brown haired woman said and winking at Naruto, she added "Such a beautiful day, I think it'll prove to be a good flight for you".

"Thanks Shizune san! Heehee" Naruto said as he beamed. There was nothing he enjoyed more than flying in the boundless blue sky.

"Will do our best Shizune chan" Iruka confidently said.

Having made sure that Danzo was fully behind the glass research cabins and out of earshot, Tsunade turned to Naruto and opened her palm "I want you to wear this, she put a necklace with a shining deep blue crystal around his neck." Meeting his surprised eyes "It was your dad's, you're now its keeper". Her voice turning gentler, then with barely concealed concern "Be safe ok kit?"

Naruto held up his necklace, ocean blue eyes observed the gem intently, feeling the cool stone against his fingers. "This was dad's, why are you giving it to me now? Thanks baachan*. Hehe, no worries I'll be fine, ya know, I'm good behind the wheel, and I've done it plenty of times before". He beamed at her, Naruto wondered whether it came with age, baba was always so brave but whenever he goes to fly-off she'd have this unvoiced concern over him. "I'll tell you when you come back tonight ok, so you'll have to come back to hear it brat" She slapped him on the head, and Naruto ducked behind Iruka before she could do it properly.

VROOM! VROOM! The engine of the small plane roared to life, Iruka waved off to the crew on the ground as Naruto gave them all a thumbs-up before pulling the plane off the runway at full speed and taking flight. The plane soon disappeared to a small dot in the boundless sky.

"Tsunade sama, Namikaze sensei's necklace...are you sure about giving it to Naruto kun so soon? It's powers are relatively unknown ..." Shizune quietly asked.

With a slight knot to her brows, Tsunade sighed then replied "At least I hope it'll protect him" something just feels odd about Danzo, and that bugging feeling in the pits of her stomach just annoys her to no end "get me some sake Shizune!"

"Hai, Tsunade sama." Shizune answered.

* * *

Once airborne, the plane rapidly climbs higher and higher in the sky. The temperature dropped as the plane took to the upper cloud levels, and the engine's steady turning motion settles into a monotonous humming rhythm. Outside, visibility was dramatically reduced due to the density of the clouds in this part of the sky, and it looks like a haze of white fog surrounded the plane. Naruto pays rapt attention to his control panel and both him and Iruka keeps an eye on whats ahead.

CLUNK! CLUNK! CLUNK! Suddenly the peaceful journey was abruptly interrupted by several loud outbursts from the right propeller engine. The body of the plane shook with the vibrations.

"What was that?" Iruka asked alarmingly, turning to Naruto.

Beep, beep, the display boards sounded and red started to flash on the control panel indicating the affected area as the right propeller engine. Naruto hurriedly pressed several combinations of buttons on his control panel, while adjusting various buttons and moving a few knobs. "Iruka sensei, something's wrong with our engine on the right wing".

CLUNK! CLUNK! It happened again, and Naruto looked at his right engine with fear, as he could see the propellers slowing in their turning motion.

"Shit! Something's stopping the propellers turning, and the right engine looks like it's slowing down too. I didn't see any birds on the radar, so I'm sure nothing's trapping the propellers and this shouldn't be happening. What the fuck!" Sweat was gathering on his brow, and blue eyes blazing with anxiety while Iruka tried to see if anything else was amiss. A sudden air current gushed through, veering the little plane off-course as if it were a helpless bird lost in the vast sky. A sudden idea struck Naruto.

"The right engine looks like going Kapput, I don't think it'll start working any time soon. I'm going to catch this current, and glide us to safety Iruka sensei, hold-on"!

On the display radar, Iruka mentally noted the direction of the air current was south west west, which could spell trouble. "Naruto, Wind speed is around 50km/hr blowing south west west at 280 to 290 degrees, but this current will take us into the zone of the triangle. We can't go there, take another course".

Barely finishing his sentence, suddenly, the plane tipped even more towards the right, and the propeller gave much laboured and slower turns. Looking quickly at the propeller about to give out, Naruto turned back to Iruka and said "We've got no other choice, Iruka sensei, we have to go into the zone because the right propellers are stopping. We need to ride on this wind current".

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! The speakers sounded the alarm tone, while the indicators on the map blinked red around a certain area on the map. Naruto punches some buttons in rapid succession, and two smaller flap opens on the mid and end sections of the right wing like mini-wings to increase the plane's air resistance and uplift.

"Alright, I guess we've got no choice. Just do your best like you always do Naruto." Iruka was full of worry at the emergency they were in, but tried to look reassuringly at Naruto.

After flying in a lopsided manner for around thirty minutes, the plane glided to a lower height.

"Ok Iruka sensei, we're now in the Bermuda triangle zone, but the plane is riding the current, we're now stabilising our flight." Naruto commented. Even before any of them could so much as breathe a sigh of relief, an enormous grey mass headed towards the plane at great speed. It was violent and angry, like it was trying to break open the heavens, this angry twist of great magnitude warped all the way up the clouds, and thunder was making the atmosphere cackle with electricity sparks, the clouds turned into an unfathomable purplish pink.

In a hurried tone, Iruka said "Naruto get ready for us to eject from our seats and escape, that's a tropical cyclone – in the Bermuda triangle the weather and seas are unpredictable and cyclones seem to appear without warning". Brown eyes looked at widening blue ones as the plane plunges head-first into the cyclone.

"Eject the emergency seats on the count of three, ONE, TWO, THREE!" Naruto shouted as their seats broke out from the main body of the plane.

"Iruka sensei!" "Naruto!" they called out to each other, and these were the last things they both heard before the cyclone angrily ripped the small plane to pieces, splintering its wings, twisting its body and cracking its windshield into a million pieces.

Two figures seemed to dance in the air like dandelions as their safety parachutes bloomed out, and they were sucked up by the vortex.

* * *

**List of foreign words**

*Baabaa/Baachan – Old lady

*Sama/san – An honorific title, such as Mr/Ms

*chan/kun - title of address used to indicate familiarity with the speaker

*Sensei – one's teacher

* * *

**Author's Note**

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this story, please review or leave me a PM. I hope you give me feedback to improve, tell me what you liked or disliked, thank you so much for reading.


	2. Chapter 2 - First Encounter

**Fire X Wind**

_**Chapter 2 – First Encounter**_

* * *

**Written by**: Purple pin

**Disclaimer**: Naruto belongs to the very talented Masashi Kishimoto sensei

**Translations**: Foreign languages marked with asterisk (*) and translated/explained at the end of the chapter before Author's Note.

**Author's Note**: At the end.

* * *

Inside the cyclone Naruto could feel sharp wind rushing past him like it was trying to cut open gashes on his face and hands, the extreme speed and spinning was making him dizzy. Then as sudden as it started, a bright sphere of orange light began to surround and envelop him in a protective barrier, Naruto stared in amazement at the raging storm outside wondering what had just happened. His necklace levitates out from underneath his shirt and floats in front of his face, it is glowing a gentle blue light. Naruto could just make out that he was going through the electrically-charged clouds and a strange portal-like gate made of thunder.

'Is this heaven? Are these the gates of Heaven, where is St Peters?' He thought to himself and laughed at his own thought, as a scientist-in-training he didn't believe in the supernatural. Past the gates, he felt himself falling again, but gently this time, like a drop of rain. As if in a dream, he could see blue sky, green trees, and several magnificent reptilian creatures in the sky, wide wings that seem to gleam in the sun.

Then another disconnected image from the flying creatures appeared. He saw a whole platoon of armoured soldiers on horseback riding eagerly towards a certain forest, their leader shouted "Hurry up you lazy bums! We have to get to the Forest of Silence before any of the other countries; our shaman has sensed the Sacred Gem's presence there". Yet the army pushed on, seemingly ignorant of Naruto's presence.

As if drifting from one dream to another, this time he saw a large python curled beside a deep bottomless pool and a young priest who had silver hair and dressed in white chanting his prayers with raised open arms. He shrieked in a trance-like voice "I sense its presence in the Forest of Silence; the Gem of the Wind God has come among us again. Tell our Lord he must dispatch forces to obtain it immediately". All of a sudden he opened his grey eyes as if he could see Naruto.

That vision too vanished, and he could feel himself falling and falling like a feather softly and gently drifting down, then suddenly without warning the orange bubble that had been enveloping him dissolved. The earth seems to be coming up to greet him, and before he knew it he was in free-fall, plunging towards the ground.

* * *

_PLONK!_ Non-too-gently he landed face-first on something soft and bouncy, like a trampoline it made him bounce, _Boin Boin_. Something felt cool and smooth against his fingers; he could smell grass through his nostrils. Slowly, he opened his eyes, and looked around to see where he had landed. He saw that he was sitting inside a giant pocket of a leaf, shaped like a pelican's pouch. In fact it was one of many giant leaves that formed part of a very tall plant. It seemed that leaves grew pockets to receive rain, store water and other nutrients for the tree.

He had apparently landed inside one of them and could fit perfectly well inside it. Untangling the parachute from his body, he reached up to grab a juicy ruby fruit just above him and put his teeth to it. No sooner had he taken the fruit, the tree suddenly shook. Violently, and all its pocket like leaves began to bend inwards, then he saw it. The centre of the tree opened to reveal rows of sharp, razor like teeth and blood-red innards made of pulsating muscles.

"UWAAAH, what's that!? Someone Help! Help!" he shouted at the top of his lungs as he clung on for dear life. However, the stalk was like an extended arm of the tree, and it was trying to flip him into the centre of the plant's monstrous mouth. He was barely holding on now, and dangling from the stalk just outside of the entrance now, slipping, slipping...his fingers finally gave up their fight and he fell. Fearing the worst he tightly shut his eyes 'this is it, Naruto Uzumaki, aged 20 fodder for hungry man-eater carnivorous plant.' He desperately thought to himself, what a sorry way to go.

Suddenly, he felt something catch him while he was in mid-fall. He barely knew what to do, but clung onto it for dear life. He felt himself being carried, that thing was jumping rapidly from one place to another, most likely from tree to tree in the thickly covered forest. Then without warning, it stopped, and all movement ceased. Naruto still held onto 'it' for fear of letting go, he was holding so tightly that his knuckles were hurting from the efforts. He nuzzled into it for comfort, and still refused to open his eyes for fear of what he may find.

_Badump! Badump! _He could hear something ... yes it is heart beat. And warmth, that thing that saved him was warm! He inhaled deeply, the smell of the crisp sharp morning, so fresh, clean and natural. What was that he was grabbing on, more importantly what had saved him? He opened his eyes wide and saw white pale skin. In fact it was a pale white chest. He looked up and saw the face of...

'Holy gracious god' Naruto thought to himself. Holding him bridal style, he realised was a young man. Elegant eyebrows swept towards his temples, and shiny black eyes held an expression of annoyance. Raven black hair with a hint of midnight blue, swept towards the back with bangs adorning his masculine jaw line. Like a fine chiselled Greek God.

The Raven promptly dropped Naruto to his ass and his senses, breaking him out from his stupor.

"Ouch! That hurt! Teme*, what was that for?! Bastard" Naruto voiced his complaint.

The raven cast him a cool glance, and with slight upturned lips that showed amusement at the other's embarrassing distress. He said "Hn. Dobe, back to your senses?"

* * *

**Translations: **

*Teme – Bastard.

*Dobe – Idiot or Dead last

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Here's chapter 2, Naruto and Sasuke's first encounter. Hope you enjoyed it, please review and comment!

_ Naruto_ – why did you put me through all that just to have a bastard like that rescue me.

_ Purplepin_ – admit it, you think he's like so good-looking ~

_ Naruto_ – yeah! .. (snapping out from drooling) hey no way! (deep blush)


	3. Chapter 3 - The Forest of Silence

**Fire X Wind**

_**Chapter 3 – The Forest of Silence**_

* * *

**Written by**: Purple pin

**Disclaimer**: Naruto belongs to the very talented Masashi Kishimoto sensei

**Translations**: Foreign languages marked with asterisk (*) and translated/explained at the end of the chapter before Author's Note.

**Author's Note**: At the end.

" " indicates speech

'..' indicates thought

* * *

Naruto stood up, brushing the dust off his stained jeans, and dirty orange top that had smears of dried juices from the man-eater plant "who are you and where am I?" He asked looking up at the raven-haired stranger, who was about a head taller than himself. The raven was standing with arms folded across his chest, and with an air of indifference simply chose to ignore that question and promptly started walking away. A vein popped in Naruto's head, and he ran ahead of the raven to stand directly in his path and stomped "Hey! Mr ice-prick, I just asked you a question, don't just walk-off".

The raven stopped walking and looked down at the blond from his better height. For a moment they stood still like that, looking at each other, the only movement being raven bangs swaying in the gentle breeze. Ocean blue eyes met coal black ones, his first encounter in this foreign world. He looked to be around his early twenties, fair skin, chin length jet-black hair that shone with a blue hue under the sun, piercing onyx eyes. He wore a white short sleeved shirt that opened at the torso revealing a well-toned chest, dark blue pants with a blue haramaki around his waist*, leg guards that reached up to his lower calf making his lithe frame even more pronounced, and arm guards that covered his forearms. A purple rope was tied in a bow around his haramaki, and there the sheath and hilt of a chokuto (long straight sword)* could be seen. He wore two fang shaped earring studs, and brown leather boots that reached his ankles. He carried a leather pack on his left shoulder. There was no other way to describe him but the word _cool_, his sharp features would not have looked out-of-place on a magazine, Naruto thought to himself.

As if in slow motion, the raven carefully grasped the hilt of his sword, and with a single fluid motion unsheathed it*, then raising his sword arm he ran straight for Naruto preparing to jump. Naruto panicked and shouted, "What the hell!? Ok, ok I'm sorry, you don't have to get so upset over two questions!" anticipating the fatal sword strike, he covered his head with his arms and frightfully closed his eyes.

_SWISH thud _the sound of metal against flesh and then feet landing on earth, yet the dreaded blow never came. Naruto carefully lowered his arms and turned to the direction of the sound, apparently the raven had jumped to about two meters in front of him, his back to Naruto standing with his sword over the grotesque carcass of a giant python with its long scaly body separated from his head, cut cleanly into two portions. Blood still dripping from its fresh fatal wound, the snake was but a few meters away from Naruto, and had been sneakily hiding, hanging in the tree above where he was standing.

Naruto could hardly stop his stomach bile rising to his mouth, and vomited out his breakfast. Wiping his mouth, realising that the bastard had not been intending to strike him, but rather protect him from the python's pry. Naruto stuttered "th...thank you for saving me", and added "again". The raven turned looking sideways at the blonde then after a brief pause he said "Name is Sasuke Uchiha. This is the Forest of Silence, Sound Country". The raven then flipped his arm backwards to sheath his sword, _SHING _a cold metallic sound echoed as he slipped his chokuto back into its saya*. _'Do people here all jump like that?_' Naruto thought.

"I'm Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki. I think we should introduce properly. Thank you for saving me earlier and just now Sasuke" The blond smiled introducing himself, and walked towards Sasuke stretching out his right hand "Have you seen another man with brown hair and a scar across his nose? He's called Iruka, and he's my teacher, he may be here too". The raven looked at his outstretched hand, blushed a little, and gingerly held it, Naruto nervously scratched the back of his head - a movement of habit when he felt flustered "as I thought customs might be different here, in my world we shake hands in greeting, ahahaha" he laughed embarrassedly "so like you know" he stammered "it looks like things are really different here, in Japan we don't have jungles and snakes, most cities are highly urbanised, there are cars, sky-scrapers, planes, lights, supermarkets, and ramen..."

Sasuke arched one of his elegant eyebrow and looked at the blabbing blond, who was rapidly turning a light pink in the cheeks, and said matter-of-factly "I don't know what you're talking about. I've never heard of Japan, and I haven't seen the man you speak of". Naruto figured out as much, that he has somehow travelled to a different place, perhaps a different dimension, although he never believed any of that was possible. He did hope, however, that Iruka sensei was safe.

"Our world is called Evalon" Sasuke said as he grabbed a waterbag* from inside his pack and held it out to Naruto "Drink up, you'll need it". Naruto took a few big gulps and handed back the waterbag, then after a moment's pause Sasuke continued, "The death of the king python will attract many beasts of the forest, we must move ahead. The forest is a dangerous place after dark, we need to get out of here before nightfall. Run close to me, and don't stop". "OK, got it. You mean, it's even creepier after dark?" Naruto half-joked and thought to himself as he looked at the giant king python that was thicker than his waist "Believe me Sasuke, I won't leave your side even if you ordered me to."

* * *

It was a dense forest, and they have been walking, running and rarely stopping for the past few hours, travelling under canopy and over the thick leafy undergrowth of the forest. Currently, Sunlight through the thick canopy had dimmed, and the temperature started to drop, Naruto figured that they had been running deeper into the forest at an upward slope towards a mountain he could now see towering in the distance. It seemed like it would be almost sunset from the fiery red colour of the sun's glow on the clouds. The roots of trees tangled and criss-crossed, like giant webs on the forest floor. Yet there was something queer about this place, it was eerily silent, devoid of the usual animal and insect sounds one would expect in a forest. There was no bird song, no insect call, no croaking of frogs, and no scurrying of small animals.

Naruto was nearly at his physical limit, but Sasuke seemed to stride with ease without any slackening in his pace, although he was panting slightly. Only the rustling of leaves and breaking of dry twigs caused by their running reverberated around the seemingly empty forest. The lack of sound was increasing Naruto's unease, as it made him feel exposed to some lurking enemy. They reached the bottom of the mountain finally, and for the first time, stopped to take some much needed rest.

Naruto observed that the entrance to the mountain was a large dark cave, the stones of the mountainside around the cave were covered with moss and overgrown tree vines, indicating that the pass had not been travelled-in for a long time. It was pitch dark inside, but the sound of water could be heard. A stream of clear running water flowed out from within the cave, and some wild flowers grew on the edges where water from the stream nurtured the earth. Naruto looked at the top of the cave's mouth where some runic inscriptions could be seen etched onto the stone, but he could not read it, and looked at Sasuke with a puzzled expression.

"It says **Ryuchi cave*** " Sasuke answered his thoughts, "written in Sharasin – the snake tongue, this is the residence of the snakes, we won't be going in there," He indicated a stony and narrow path to the right with his arm, and said "the overland mountain pass is our route. You can take a short rest for now". Naruto sighed in relief, thankful that they won't have to travel into the cave, and he doesn't have to see any more snakes today. "Ok, sounds good, I'll just get us some water from that stream" Naruto replied. He ran over to the stream some distance away carrying the water bag, while Sasuke leaned against a tree some distance away, taking a short rest.

Unbeknownst to Naruto, two pairs of yellow eyes were watching them, and sensed that it was the perfect moment to strike. An animalistic howl broke the unnatural silence of the forest and a huge black panther no less than two meters jumped out from its hiding place behind some trees and pounced at Naruto.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, Sasuke's eyes flew open but he was too far away to get to Naruto on time. With the panther hot on his tail, Naruto ran towards the only nearby safe spot, which was into the Ryuchi cave. The panther stood at the mouth of the cave, howling but seemingly weary of going inside to chase the blond, it stopped at the entrance and bared its sharp teeth at Sasuke. Without a second of hesitation Sasuke slashed the Black Panther causing it to run away howling in pain, and stepped inside the cave. Scarcely had he taken a few steps inside then the whole mountain seemed to shake with a thunderous tremor. _DONK DONK DONK _Sasuke looked behind where he stood mere seconds ago, a few boulders the size of elephants and weighing at least hundreds of tonnes blocked the only exit to the caves.

* * *

**Translations:**

* Haramaki: is a type of chest armour worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan and their retainers. It looks like the "waist band" Zoro (from the One Piece manga) wears.

*Chokuto: The chokutō is a straight one edged Japanese sword that was produced prior to the 10th century. Chokutō were used on foot for stabbing or slashing and was worn hung from the waist.

*Saya: Sheath or scabbard of a sword.

*Waterbag: Think of the Mongolian leather water bags.

*Ryuchi cave: literally meaning Dragon ground cave.

* * *

**Author's Note**

Want to know why Sasuke blushed when Naruto offered him a handshake? You'll find out in the next chapters ~~

Review please if you liked reading. Thanks !

Naruto – why was I always the one being chased by stupid animals?!

Sasuke – because you're delish?

Purplepin – you shouldn't slash panthers Sasuke kun, that's mean.

Sasuke – vein pop and death glare, well I wonder who the hell wrote that part in?!


	4. Chapter 4 - The Ryuchi Cave

**Fire X Wind**

_**Chapter 4 – The Ryuchi Cave**_

* * *

**Written by**: Purple pin

**Disclaimer**: Naruto belongs to the very talented Masashi Kishimoto sensei

**Translations**: Foreign languages marked with asterisk (*) and translated/explained at the end of the chapter before Author's Note.

**Author's Note**: At the end.

".." indicates speech

'..' indicates thought

* * *

With a shattering echo the last of the boulders fell, and the noise of crashing stones reverberated in the dark cave.

Then it was quite again. In the pitch-darkness, only the occasional dripping of water from somewhere deep inside the mountain could be heard.

"Sasuke?" Someone uttered in a whimpering voice. There was a clicking sound, and then a weak beam of round light searched the entrance area, where huge stone boulders now separated the forest from this world inside. The light source continued to search aimlessly, until it found a tall figure, standing upright, with hands on the hilt of a long sword.

"Sasuke! You're here!" this time the voice exclaimed with joy. Naruto ran towards the tall figure, and when he reached it, pulled Sasuke into a tight hug, afraid his only companion would suddenly disappear on him, like an apparition.

Naruto wrapped his arms around the other's waist, and rested his head against his strong chest. He breathed a deep sigh of relief, and smelled that intoxicating aroma of Sasuke Uchiha. The smell reminded him of a pine forest in winter, crisp and clean. 'Is it even possible to smell this good?' Naruto thought to himself. It was an odd sensation that he has never experience before, and it put him into a sort of dreamy haze.

Suddenly, a pair of strong hands grabbed his arms and pried them away. Naruto felt the comforting heat shift away, and held back on, tighter this time, much like a koala hugging a tree not wanting to be taken away from it.

"Dobe, are you going to let me move?" Sasuke's mocking tone brought him back to earth. Naruto looked up a little hazily, and saw Sasuke's pale face looking down at him, with an annoyed expression.

"Uh, no?" Naurto answered dumbly, suddenly there was a sharp pain on his cheeks as some hands squeezed them. Naruto snapped back to reality. He pushed Sasuke back.

"Ouch! That hurts teme!" He winced, nursing his sore cheeks.

"hn," Sasuke grunted "didn't know you liked holding me this much."

"What? No! I...I was just...just afraid, that's all." Naruto stepped back away from the raven, to make his point. "I don't always hug people." He emphasised by flinging his hands about, making rays of beam dance erratically along the ragged top of the cave.

"What's that you're holding?" Sasuke asked, pointing at the object Naruto held in his right hand.

"Huh? Oh this, this is a torch. See, if you click it like this it turns the light on and off." He demonstrated. "Very handy, isn't it? Bet you've never seen it before in this world!" He looked a little smugly to the raven, and thought triumphantly 'yeah, at last one win to Naruto Uzumaki!'

Sasuke rolled his eyes and pulled a thick wooden straight stick from the leather pouch he was carrying on his left shoulder, and held it before his mouth. He drew some air in through his mouth, and blew out a ball of fire onto the top of the stick. Suddenly the cave was illuminated by the glowing radiance of a burning torch flame.

Naruto was bewildered beyond his wildest dreams. A boy had just breathed out fire from his mouth! How was that even remotely possible?

"Do you know magic?" Naruto asked, and thought he sounded silly. Hastily he put his emergency torch back into his jean's pockets.

"Yes, I know magic; but this is a fire based technique, not magic" Sasuke replied like this was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Can everyone in this world breath fire, like you?"

"No, not everyone. It is ability unique to my family and other kinsmen." he answered.

Looking at the stunned expression on Naruto's face, Sasuke put the glowing torch into the blonde's hands.

"Hold onto this, and I'll try to get us out of here." Sasuke said.

Drawing his chokuto out swiftly from its saya, Sasuke shouted as if commanding his sword "Chidori!*" A ball of lightning energy erupted around his right hand and stretched along the body of the blade, enveloping it in a brilliant white light made of millions of glowing electricity sparks. The blade screeched like a thousand birds, and electrons cut through the cool, still cave air like a piercing war-cry.

"Stand back." Sasuke said. Jumping gracefully into the air, he swung his sword in a left to right motion, and cut at the stone boulder.

It didn't budge one bit, still as ever.

"As I thought, these boulders have been enhanced by magic." Sasuke said turning to Naruto "If I'm not mistaken, someone knows we are here, and purposely guided our path. Be on your guard."

"Who is trapping us here, and why?" Naruto asked.

"I do not know," answered Sasuke; "but I would rather face the perils of the mountain pass a thousand times, than pass through the deep underground of the Ryuchi cave." With that said, Sasuke passed on ahead holding the flame, Naruto walked beside him, two dim figures in the gloom.

* * *

The cave opened wider as they walked deeper and the temperature dropped considerably. This was in fact an underground passageway into the heart of the mountain. Naruto felt they were going deeper and deeper under the earth from the gradual decent they've been making.

They came to a rock shelter, and beyond that barely fifty meters away stony grounds gave way to the rocky shores of a vast underground lake that stretched from one side of the cave to the other end. Past the lake, the cave lead on into the dark. It appears this lake was the source of the stream that flowed all the way to the entrance of the cave.

Conical columns of varying sizes of crystallised clay hung from the ceiling of the cave. The columns were multicoloured, showing the presence of different minerals and chemical elements. Water dripped from the tip of some of these columns into the lake below, occasionally making small round ripples appear on the smooth surface. The lake was like a large black mirror, hiding its own secrets under its velvety exterior

"Let us sit and rest and have something to eat, here under the rock shelter." said Sasuke.

The proposal was welcomed; Naruto propped the torch between two rocks so that it continued burning, and they sat down to eat in the torch light. Sasuke took a package wrapped in cloth from inside his pack, opened it and divided its contents between himself and Naruto. They hungrily ate the food and shared some water from the waterbag. Naruto noticed that what Sasuke gave him was a dry, soft and crumbly biscuit like a butter shortbread made of wheat, sesame and oats, rolled into it were some sweet meat and nuts. It actually tasted rather nice, and was quite filling.

After they have sufficiently quenched their thirst and satisfied their hunger, Sasuke was the first to stand up followed by Naruto, then indicating with his right hand he said "lets cross this lake to reach the other side by walking along that rocky ledge." To get to the other side of the cave, they would have to cross the lake somehow. A narrow strip of rugged, rocky black formation could be seen jutting out here and there above the water's surface. These stones lay in random locations, but they weren't too far apart and effectively stretched from one end of the lake to the other, providing a sort of natural walkway for getting across.

Naruto looked at the rocky formation and internally squirmed, he was not very fond of that idea at all. The rocks were rugged, and looked slippery; moreover, he didn't like being so close to the water. If there was one sport he didn't excel at back at school, it was swimming. Not that he was a whinny scaredy-cat, anything else, running, climbing, hell even sky diving, he would do at the drop of a hat.

"I hate this pool, this place. I'm afraid of it, of what I don't know, but there's something here, something not quite right." Naruto felt his hair standing on end.

"Scared are we?" Sasuke mocked with a smirk.

"No way teme!" Naruto retorted. Surprisingly, Sasuke's teasing eased his stress a little.

Sasuke picked up their torch and held it in his left hand followed by Naruto closely behind. They walked past rocky pebbles of the shore, and reached the edge of the black lake. The raven haired young man walked to the start of the rocky formation, it was not a perfect path, as some steps were missing or parts of the ridge was hidden underwater.

Sasuke stepped onto the first few rocky ridges and tested it to see whether it was stable; feeling it was solid and steady, he turned back to Naruto and nodded, indicating that it was safe to step on. Naruto tentatively stepped on, and they started picking out a path among the rocks, occasionally jumping from one rock to the other. Sasuke walked at the front while Naruto following closely behind.

They continued in silence taking careful steps, Sasuke occasionally glanced around for any signs of danger. Nothing happened though, except for the occasional water dripping onto the lake, it was eerily quiet. They were now almost half-way across the huge lake.

Suddenly there was a loud plop, and a yell, and then someone grabbed onto Sasuke's left foot making him loose his balance and fall into the water. Submerged in the icy water, Sasuke grabbed the thing that dragged him down and two faces emerged from the water. An annoyed raven and a very embarrassed blond whose gold locks were plastered to his face surfaced.

"Clumsy dobe," Sasuke muttered.

"Oh, haha, I'm sorry," Naruto laughed "it was very slippery, and I couldn't see very well, so I slipped." It amazed Naruto that Sasuke looked good even with his hair dripping wet.

"If you've finished staring, let's get back on our feet." Sasuke said turning away, swimming back to the rocky formation.

Before Naruto could reply, something long and slimy grabbed his feet underwater, but all he could do was gargle and gulp-up water. Shouting a loud cry, Naruto's arms flailed around as he tried desperately to swim away from his captor.

* * *

Sasuke sensed the disturbance behind him, and turning back saw a long sinuous tentacle had crawled; it was slimy, scaly, purple, and wet. It had caught hold of Naruto's under water, and was dragging him down. Sasuke cursed under his breath, and took a big gulp of air, before diving into the water to follow Naruto into the watery depths.

Naruto wriggled and writhed against the tentacle's clutches under water, but it was futile, he could not get it to loosen its deathly grip. Sasuke took a short dagger out from his side pocket and started slashing at the tentacle. The water was strangely clear underneath, which enabled Sasuke to see clearly.

Under his rapid stabbing, the tentacle let go of Naruto, who fell further down. Where Sasuke had made deep cuts into the creature, the water foamed with a deep gluey black sap. 'Snake blood' thought Sasuke.

He swam down to where Naruto had drifted, and wrapped his arms against the other boy, facing each other, he held the other's face gently, and smacked their lips together, pulling them into a tight kiss. Suddenly Naruto was no longer suffocating, he felt his lungs expand, and his head clear with the sudden injection of oxygen. As his eyes snapped open, he saw onyx eyes staring at him, and raven locks swaying gently in the water. Their faces were so close, noses touching, air bubbles went up and some of these stayed on Sasuke's long eyelashes.

In his peripheral vision Sasuke suddenly saw a dark shadow close-in with amazing speed towards Naruto from the depths. The giant snake was not about to let go of its prey. At the blink of an eye its head, which was the size of a small cow suddenly appeared inches away from Naruto, its evil yellow slitted eyes gleamed with beastly hunger, and it opened its mouth preparing to devour the small human. The toothless cavern of its mouth opened wide, showing a long forked tongue. It bit down with great force, but instead of tasting delicious human flesh, it felt a bitter pain in its mouth. Its eyes opened alarmingly, and saw that where the blond was moments earlier, a raven now stands.

A sharp fang, roughly half a meter in length and as thick and wide as a human wrist pierced its upper lip, and black blood oozed out from the open wound. In the short moments before the snake struck, Sasuke broke their kiss, pushed Naruto back so that his body shielded the other boy from danger. With his back to the enemy, he flipped his wrist around with great force to lodge the fang into the snake's mouth.

Naruto was now fully conscious no longer lacking in oxygen. He saw Sasuke reached his hands up to his right ear a second time, taking off the other one of his fang-shaped earrings. It increased in size to resemble the fang that was now sticking out of the snake's upper lip. Sasuke held the middle of the new fang with its razor sharp edge pointed at the snake.

It would be a rough fight. In the snake's watery den he was out of his element, he was going to have to go all out this time and end it quickly before they run out of air.

The snake watched between Sasuke and Naruto, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Sasuke swam in front of Naruto, shielding him from the snake. He looked into the snake's pitiless eyes, and saw the presence of another consciousness staring back at him.

Then something strange happened, a shrill voice spoke to Sasuke and Naruto's minds, it was directed from the snake. The voice was cruel and pitiless, "...dragon boy, today is when you shall meet your end, here in Lord Manda's Ryuchi cave! And this pool shall be your watery grave. Hand over that blond boy and the Wind Necklace! Or I will torture you until you wished you were never born."

"Fight me, you stupid worthless snake spawn!" Sasuke retorted back in his mind as well. Naruto looked across at Sasuke, and saw his pupils turn into the colour of a pigeon-blood ruby, with black spiralling patterns dancing in its centre.

The giant snake attacked at lightning speed, snapping its jaws and thrusting its angry head forward. Sasuke swam forward pushing against the water, and plunged the dragon's fang into Manda's throat. With a terrible yelp of pain, the snake opened its mouth, stretched out his fangs to their greatest length and bit into the pale flesh on Sasuke's back.

The snake fell, with the dragon fang planted straight through its slimy throat. Leaving a trail of black blood behind as it dropped into the depths.

Sasuke's eyes widened in pain as his pupils faded back to its normal obsidian colour. He felt the snake venom take its toll, and his hands and feet go numb. His consciousness slipped away into a black dreamless night.

* * *

**Translations:**

Words appearing in earlier chapters are not listed here, please refer back for translations.

Chidori*: Literally meaning a thousand birds. This is one of Kakashi and Sasuke's signature moves, refer to Narutopedia for more information.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

An action packed chapter, I really enjoyed writing it, in particular the kiss scene...and the scene about the torch, Naru chan was really cute ~~  
Hope you liked it, and here I take my leave until the next update.

Please review and let me know what you think or if you have questions about the plot/characters etc. Thank you!

**Manda:** I want to eat Naruto. How dare you kill me, you worthless piece of #$%.  
**Purplepin:** Manners! Who said I killed you?  
**Manda:** I'm hungry, no one comes into the Ryuchi caves, I'm starving. Sob**

**Purplepin:** Ok, I'll revive you with my special brand of magic potion, and you'll get another chance. How's that? In exchange, this is what I want in return (whispers in Manda's ear). Deal?  
**Manda:** Deal!


End file.
